Author: Jaren Luke

Bottom Fishing In Hawaii

On a recent trip to the south side of Oahu, I joined my good friend Blaine Shiraki on a bottom-fishing trip on his 20-foot Wellcraft, F/V Mahina. We had a couple Henry Ching made electric reels loaded with Bullbuster braid. After an hour of running and 15 miles of travel we arrived at our spot for the day. The water was about 95 fathoms deep with the fish finder showing clouds of nice fish towards the bottom.

Bottom Fishing Rigs

We were using simple branch rigs with five hook branches baited with chunks of squid we had prepped the day before. It didn’t take long for my four-pound lead weight to hit the bottom and within a minute I was starting to feel some good bites. There were some nice fish brought up including a few amberjacks weighing up to 30 pounds.

On one of the last drops of the day, I felt a nice bite and instantly jerked the line to set the hook. Once I confirmed the fish was on I flipped the switch and the electric reel began pulling the fish to the surface. It looked to be another good sized amberjack but when deep color started showing there was no mistaking what it was. It was the rare Hawaiian sea bass. We were very excited at this catch due to the delicious meat that this fish provides. Once again the Bullbuster braidedfishing line helps to continue our successful fishing adventures! Aloha.